Page 7 - RADC 2016

Major Nick Gibbs
Askari Serpent is a testing exercise that provides primary healthcare to Kenyan civilians in conjunction with the Kenyan Defence Forces Medical Services (KDFMS) and local healthcare providers. It is a
key element in providing the “consent
to train” for the Askari Storm series of Battle Group exercises. Askari Serpent is the nal Exercise in a year of training for the Medical Regiment which begins with individual training culminating in Kenya. The RADC teams had not been involved in any of the training before heading to Kenya and only one of the team had any experience of using the Dental Field Kit.
As 2 Medical Regimental has no integrated dental personnel the unit had
a limited idea of what capability we could deliver or what equipment we required.
Due to this and the small amount of time between activation and deployment we
had to overcome many issues in theatre that could have been resolved in the UK. Fortunately, a former colleague who works at the local Cottage Hospital in Nanyuki was able to help us out.
Once in the eld AS was a demanding exercise which increased our eld skills signi cantly. Three weeks with no tarmac roads, a limited supply chain and dif cult communications tested our ability to provide high volume, appropriate, primary dental care. It was a thoroughly rewarding exercise that made us better soldiers and helped the local communities by removing many teeth that had caused pain for many months and years.
Future Askari Serpent’s will swap between 2 and 3 Medical Regiments which should increase continuity and will help avoid many of the problems we encountered this time, especially as new Portable Dental Units, sterilisers and NOMAD X-Ray unit come into service and the dental modules are updated.
Askari Serpent is a great experience and well worth going on if you get the chance.
LCpl Melissa Naulls
“On a dreary Thursday in April at 11pm our journey to Kenya started. After a long wait at South Cerney and then at Brize Norton we boarding our 8-hour ight.
Finally we arrived at Nairobi airport and I was ecstatic.
We waited around in scorching heat during the hours of darkness for our transport to set off to Laikipia Airbase
East (LAB(E)). Nairobi’s streets were
over crowded with people and market stalls placed right on the edges of the road. People just randomly stopped their vehicles here there and everywhere, not to mention all the random road bumps on the motorway.
Having been in LAB(E) for week where we sorted out the dental equipment and tried to source things we didn’t have we deployed into the eld. I was teamed up with Major Welborn and a reservist dental nurse Private Holland-Knight to join Health Outreach Clinic 1 (HOC 1) who were heading east.
We got to work in partnership with the Kenyan Defence Force (KDF) Medical Services to provide healthcare to more than 5,000 villagers in isolated and vulnerable locations, such as Dabba. I helped to provided oral health advice in the village’s schools and to those who were queuing for appointments. I also got to undertake roles outside of the normal roles of a dental nurse, these included taking patients observations and helping the CMTs as they followed their protocols for diagnosis and treatment.
All the places we provided dental care to were very isolated and most patients
had never seen a dental clinic before. On
a number of occasions patients refused treatment as they didn’t want LA thinking we were giving them the polio vaccination.
There was a very obvious language barrier we had to deal with, as interpreters could only speak a little bit of English and sometimes we were having to translate from English to Swahili to Samburu. However,
I decided to learn certain phrases of each language to help us during treatments to reassure patients.
I would 100% go back to Kenya to deliver health care. It broadened my horizons both on their culture and my career aspirations.”
RADC BULLETIN 2016 5